Mumbai: The project management profession is likely to out perform total global job growth over the next decade, creating millions of new positions in India that pay highly-competitive wages, according to a report.

“India will require 70 lakh new project managers in next 10 years. India will emerge as the fastest growing country in the world for project management-oriented employment," according to Project Management Institute’s (PMI) report - Project Management Job Growth and Talent Gap 2017-2027. The growth in project management oriented occupations will be on account of expansion in key sectors like manufacturing and construction, information services, technology, publishing, and finance and insurance, it added.

The 2017 talent gap report is the third assessment of project management employment and industry activity conducted by the Anderson Economic Group (AEG) for PMI in countries Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UK and the US. As per the report, by 2027, India will have the second-largest number of project management-oriented jobs in the world (218 lakh), only behind China (460 lakh).

“India will need 70 lakh skilled project managers in the next 10 years in order to avoid delays and escalation of budgets in projects in key industries like roads, railways, IT and manufacturing," said PMI India, Country Director Raj Kalady. “These sectors are going to see large scale investments along with important programs such as Digital India and Smart Cities," he said. It said project management jobs outlook continued to outshine the overall labour market due to both growth and attrition.

However, the potential talent shortage puts at risk a total of nearly $208 billion in GDP from 2017–2027, for the 11 countries assessed and 11% ($23.4 billion) of that amount is at risk from India, the report stated. “As the project management profession continues to show considerable growth, the global shortage of project talent will present exceptional opportunities for qualified professionals to begin and advance their careers," PMI President and CEO Mark A Langley said.

He said executives will face increased financial and human resource risks due to this talent gap. The key industries that will see job growth include manufacturing and construction (97,43,709), information services and publishing (54,50,122), finance and insurance (46,10,811), management and professional services (17,07,506), Utilities (2,78,706) and oil and gas (48,629), it said.